Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Varanasi on Wednesday, Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti on Wednesday inspected the ongoing cleaning exercise in the river and its ghats in the holy city and announced that its sewage treatment capacity will be increased to 411.8 MLD from 101.8 MLD.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday said the government will review the ambitious Direct Taxes Code, which proposed overhaul of the six-decade old Income Tax Act in its present shape and take a view on the whole matter.

Faced with a drought-like situation and high food prices, the government today announced a Rs 1,000 crore scheme to boost irrigation and also set up Rs 500 crore price stabilisation fund to rein in food inflation.

Expressing commitment to revive special economic zones, the government Thursday said it would take "effective steps" to make them instruments of industrial production, economic growth, export promotion and employment generation.

The Budget for 2014-15 Thursday left income tax rates unchanged but provided sops to small and marginal assesses by raising the threshold exemption limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh and investments under 80C by Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh while promising not to bring tax changes with retrospective effect.

In a major relief to domestic stainless steel industry, reeling under severe under- utilisation of capacity, the government Thursday increased import duty on flat-rolled products from 5 percent to 7.5 percent.

Shares of public sector banks declined by as much as 4.3 percent after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday said the lenders would require Rs 2.40 lakh crore capital by 2018 to meet global Basel III norms.

The government Thursday said it will allocate Rs 500 crore for its 'Digital India' initiative to set up broadband network in villages and promote local manufacturing of hardware and Indian software products.

The broader Nifty fell more than 1 percent on Thursday to its lowest in nearly 2-1/2 weeks as lenders such as ICICI Bank were hit by profit-taking even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stuck to the previous government`s fiscal deficit target.

Assuring investors that retrospective amendments to tax laws will be undertaken with extreme caution, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said all fresh cases arising out of the 2012 amendment of I-T Act will be looked into by a high level CBDT committee.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley began presenting the first national budget for self and Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s government Thursday expressing concerns over economic slowdown while promising steps to ensure a course correction with bold measures.